1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a security-ensuring apparatus having the ability to display information regarding security as well as information on the operating procedures thereof. A security-ensuring apparatus of this type may be employed in an alarm system for protecting a predetermined area against unauthorized intrusions, the destruction of or removal of property, fire, equipment failure, etc.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Conventional security-ensuring apparatus for alarm systems employ a number of light-emitting diodes and electric lamps which turn on to display information regarding security. The light-emitting diodes and electric lamps are arranged on a display panel, each of them displaying predetermined section or sections of a protected area, and the names of the respective sections correspondingly appear on the display panel. Thus, the user of the alarm system and authorized personnel, such as dispatched engineers, must find the abnormal section or sections of the protected area and judge whether or not a particular alarm mode, i.e., the start of an unmanned alarm mode, might be set in the security-ensuring apparatus by inspecting the number of lit or unlit light-emitting diodes and lamps. This is very cumbersome. Further, if the area protected by the alarm system is large or complex, it is very difficult in the designing of the apparatus to arrange the display lamps and light-emitting diodes for a number of divided sections of the protected area, respectively. In addition, if an emergency or abnormality occurs in a section or sections of the protected area, it usually takes a very long time for the user or the dispatched engineers to arrive at the site of the emergency or abnormality after inspecting which light-emitting diodes and lamps on the display panel are lit. As a result, the prevention of crime and the control of fire, etc. can become impossible. This is a drawback of such an alarm system.
Further, it is quite natural that the conventional security-ensuring apparatus is operated only by well-trained and authorized personnel, such as dispatched engineers, considering the secrecy of the alarm system. Therefore, it is rather difficult for untrained persons and users to correctly operate the security-ensuring apparatus. In addition, in the applicant's past experience in controlling conventional alarm systems utilized by approximately one hundred thousand renters or owners, it was found that approximately 30 percent of the information regarding abnormalities transmitted to the central station was false information due to improper operation of a conventioanl security-ensuring apparatus by the users. That is to say, part of the false information resulted from the fact that the users set an unmanned alarm mode in their security-ensuring apparatus before confirming the absence of an abnormal condition in the area or areas to be protected by the alarm systems. The rest of the false information resulted from the fact that the users were not trained in operation of the security-ensuring apparatus. Upon the receipt of each piece of false information, the central station had to dispatch engineers to the site of the abnormality so that the engineers could deal with the abnormality and carry out necessary security-ensuring actions. Accordingly, the cost of controlling the alarm systems inevitably became high, with the result that the alarm systems were not widely used. Thus, it is very important that the security-ensuring apparatus be easy for untrained persons to operate.
The above-mentioned drawbacks of the conventional security-ensuring apparatus have prevented the wide utilization thereof in alarm systems.